The Washington State Opportunity Scholarship fuels Washington's innovation economy by providing scholarships and support services to low- and middle-income students pursuing high-demand STEM and health care degrees in Washington state. The Director of External Affairs works to execute WSOS's local, regional and state-wide communication efforts, with a focus on building strategic relationships with stakeholders across higher education; state and local governments; business communities; community based organizations and media outlets. The director oversees external marketing and communications efforts, government relations and private sector engagement in order to align program goals with direct services, events, fund development and advocacy.

As the assistant director of the University of Washington Alumni Association’s legislative advocacy program, I connect alumni and the greater education community to the local, state and federal policy issues facing the UW. Through events, marketing, communications and presentations I build advocates in public office and the greater alumni and business community in order to advance the UW and public higher education. Duties include: • Collaborate with University of Washington government relations and advancement staff to build engaged stakeholders within the alumni community and the state Legislature in order to advance the UW and public higher education in Washington. • Identify and develop outreach and civic engagement opportunities to connect alumni and community members to the local, state and federal public policy issues facing the UW through events, presentations and communications. • Track and analyze public higher education legislation, and distill policy implications for a general audience.• Write, edit and design UW Impact marketing, outreach, advocacy and policy communications including newsletters, blogs, internal communications, fact sheets, policy memos, talking points and social media.• Steward the legislative priority setting process and develop a subsequent advocacy and communications strategy.• Cultivate relationships and steward engagement of elected officials, high-level volunteers, constituents & community members.• Identify and develop external and internal partners for events and to form coalitions in the business and education community.• Collaborate on the assessment and evaluation of programming effectiveness.• Hire and manage interns and contractors.

I am responsible for developing and implementing strategic communications and outreach programs that represent UW Impact, a legislative advocacy non profit that supports higher education.

Worked as a freelance writer, researcher and content developer on issues of social and education equity along the P-20 spectrum.

Intern for the Integration Manager at the Opportunity Center for Employment &Education. The OCE&E aims to provide integrated employment, education and social services from three state agencies and 25-30 community-based organizations at North Seattle Community College. The OCE&E is a national model for delivering efficient, coherent services to unemployed and under-served adults in Washington State.

Reporter covering city government, politics, education, business and environmental issues. Responsible for maintaining editorial calendar, updates social media channels and assisted with layout, design and editing for the weekly print paper. Also, assisted with photography.

Freelance researcher and social media strategist for Inquix Learning Solutions, which is a training firm dedicated to the development of today’s multi-generational workforce.

Created an online, breaking business news blog; wrote small features on new companies, deals and news; and wrote a monthly column in the print publication on the biggest deals of the month.

Wrote scripts, recorded and edited audio and video interviews with medical professionals and researched for the online medical television site www.mditv.com

Business and operations internship for the Division One Oregon Football program. Tasks included data input/analysis, research projects, tours and assisting team members to plan and work events.I helped orchestrate Junior Day for high school prospects, the annual end-of-year banquet, weekly recruit visits during football season and several large-scale fundraising benefits.

Intern covering community events and education for three rural school districts outside of Eugene, Oregon. Started an education column for the print newspaper and responsible for story generation, research and edits.